Joseph is Jacob’s favourite child. Jacob gives Joseph a special gift, an ornate robe. The Hebrew word used points to a long robe that made it difficult to any kind of physical work, meaning that Joseph couldn’t do the physical, dirty jobs that youngest brothers normally had to do, like herding sheep or spending time in the fields. Jacob’s clearly showing everyone that he’s grooming Joseph to take over the family business. This doesn’t go over well with his older brothers. Then Joseph goes and brings his dad a bad report about them, and doesn’t seem to realize how this turns them against him even more.
This is the context in which Joseph has his two dreams, both of them building on each other, pointing to Joseph gaining power over his brothers, leading to them bowing down to him. The brothers easily interpret the dreams when Joseph shares his dreams with them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” It’s not very surprising that they react with, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.” The sheaves are all equal, and then suddenly Joseph’s sheave is lifted up and made more important.
You’d think Joseph would sense the tension with their response, but then he has another dream and shares it with them again, “Listen, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” Joseph tells his father his dreams and even Jacob rebukes him, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers are even more than angry, but Jacob’s experience and wisdom makes him keep Joseph’s dreams in mind, waiting to see if these dreams are from God, or just the dreams of a young man who desires importance and power.
These dreams fit with Jacob’s desire for Joseph to become the leader of the family through whom God’s blessings would flow. This is a story about power. Joseph, as the younger son, has no power in his own right, but his dreams point to him being raised up into a place of power. His brothers refuse to believe that they’ll kneel before him. Today, we live in a culture where kneeling before someone else is hard, it takes humility to acknowledge that someone else has power or authority that we’re called to acknowledge. Kneeling puts us in a position of vulnerability where our head is bowed, our eyes are on the ground and we cannot defend ourselves, having to trust in the goodness of the person we’re kneeling to. We struggle with pride, believing we know better; inside many of us believe we’re better than others, so bowing to someone grates against our pride.
Jacob’s dream and history call us to listen carefully to Joseph's dreams; God’s doing something here through Jacob to move forward his plan of redeeming humanity and all creation. Jacob’s spoiling of Joseph leads to Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph’s story is a complicated journey into a place of importance in a household, yet ends up in prison because of a false charge by his master’s wife. In prison, Joseph again rises in importance and then becomes a dream interpreter for two other prisoners. His interpretation of their dreams later leads to him interpreting the dreams of Pharoah, who raises Joseph to second-in-command to save the Egyptians, and others, from a devastating famine. Joseph saves his own family from the famine and helps them settle into a place where they can grow and flourish. Because of the dreams of others, all from God, Joseph is raised up to a place of power and authority, fulfilling his own dreams.
Through everything, Joseph keeps trusting in God and who God calls him to be, even when faced with temptation and persecution. When Joseph is raised up to a throne, Joseph uses his power to save, not only the Egyptians, but people from all nations who came seeking food during the long famine foretold in Pharoah’s dreams. When his brothers find themselves before Joseph, bowing before him, just like his dreams said would happen, Joseph offers forgiveness, recognizing God at work in it all. Genesis 45:5 and 7, "Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.... God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”
Joseph’s dreams point ahead to Jesus and how everything on earth and in heaven, will bow down to Jesus. The Lord, through Joseph, saves his people and brings them to a place of flourishing in Goshen. Likewise, Jesus comes as Lord of all to save his people, offering us forgiveness, freedom, and new life and renewed creation. The wise men are led by a heavenly sign to bow down to Jesus, pointing to the nations of the world coming to bow down to Jesus when Jesus returns to establish the kingdom of heaven over all creation. The wisemen kneel before Jesus, and worship him. They confess that Jesus has been sent by God, and recognize that his authority is divine and greater than any earthly king.
Bowing the knee to Jesus and acknowledging his lordship and authority over our lives doesn’t always bring a comfortable life. Jesus took on the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness, born to Mary in a stable. Joseph’s faithfulness to God through the troubles of his life points to the faithfulness of Jesus to his Father’s will which leads him to the cross where he takes our sin and punishment on himself to save us from death. Just as Joseph is lifted up over his brothers, so Jesus is raised up over all creation, “God exalts Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that us above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus is not a ceremonial king like King Charles, he’s the king of power even in the manger. When we bow before Jesus, we’re bowing to the creator and saviour of the universe, the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, the King of kings before whom all other kings will bow. Herod, along with every other ruler in our world, will have to humble themselves before Jesus at some point, along with all of us. The rulers of the world promise us all kinds of things, but they cannot save us, they cannot give us new life, or a full life, the only ruler who can is Jesus.
Jesus is divine, this calls us to a deep level of commitment and trust to live in obedience to Jesus’ commands. We seek to imitate Jesus in his humility, when in the Garden of Gethsemane, he turns to the Father with the cross before him and commits himself to the Father’s plan, saying, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Our culture will turn against us, it always does, as Joseph and Jesus both experienced. When we bow our knee to Jesus, we choose his will over ours, we chose his right over wrong, we turn from selfishness and pride to humility and obedience, we obey the call to be holy, to be pure in our minds, hearts, and bodies, we work hard to love God, our neighbours, and even our enemies, but it won’t always be easy, as the gulf between our culture and church is growing larger.
In Philippians 2, Paul calls us to remember who we are as children of God, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” We find the strength to work out our salvation and to live in obedience to God through the regular study of Scripture, through making prayer central to our day, and in the gathering together to worship, as it keeps us focused on Jesus and away from ourselves.
Are you willing to bow the knee to Jesus, to respond to the call of Jesus, working out your salvation through making Jesus first in your lives, doing his will, and living according to his purposes over your own, trusting in Jesus’ will for your lives? Join together in committing ourselves and our families to following Jesus with the confession of Joshua, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
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